Good sand stirrers

vonjankmon

vonjankmon

Reefing newb
I have a DSB in my 90 gallon (About 6 inches) and as the tank gets a bit more mature (5 months and counting now with some new rock and some well aged rock from my old 55 gallon) I was looking into getting some more critters to move the sand around a bit and keep it clean. I have a lot of Nass snails and they do an ok job of keeping the very top stirred but I was looking for something maybe a bit bigger. I also have a pair of shrimp gobies that good a good job around where they have their home built but they just kind of stir up an area directly out of whatever entrance they are using that day.

I have been looking at getting some Burrowing Conch snails that get to be about 3 inches in size but I have not seen much information about how well they stir things up and I hate buying anything I cannot find a good amount of information on. Obviously I do not want anything to large as I do not want anything that digs deeper than an inch or so or something that will eat everything out of my sand bed, just looking for a slightly larger janitor than the Nass snails. Anyone have an experience with the Burrowing Conch Snails? I think they go by Tiger Conch snails also.

Thanks,
 
Hermits do a very good job stirring sand. Some people don't like them because they can cuase problems but I have never seen them cause any major problems in my tank. You are going to be very hard pressed to find anything that will deep stir 6 inches of sand.
 
Actually I do not want something that will stir 6 inches of sand, just about an inch or so. Disturbing a DSB to far down can result in some rather unpleasant results. I just want to keep the top of it as clean as possible. I have small hermits but I have seahorses in the tank so anything big enough to grab a tail is a no go for me.
 
Have two of them and a pistol shrimp. They do a good job but only in like a straight line out of the burrow entrance that they are using that day. About a third of my tank has LR in it, they have a whole burrow setup under the rock with three entrances. On occasion they will open up more than one but usually they and the pistol shrimp just open one up and you can see a line of destruction where they have mixed the sand all up from the burrow entrance across 6 to 14 inches or so of the tank.

I am not having any kind of problems with the substrate right now but the tank is very young still. I am trying to get a good clean up crew setup for the long term. So no one has actually kept any Burrowing Conchs
 
vonjankmon said:
Have two of them and a pistol shrimp. They do a good job but only in like a straight line out of the burrow entrance that they are using that day. About a third of my tank has LR in it, they have a whole burrow setup under the rock with three entrances. On occasion they will open up more than one but usually they and the pistol shrimp just open one up and you can see a line of destruction where they have mixed the sand all up from the burrow entrance across 6 to 14 inches or so of the tank.

I am not having any kind of problems with the substrate right now but the tank is very young still. I am trying to get a good clean up crew setup for the long term. So no one has actually kept any Burrowing Conchs
Click to expand...

I think Fastrd was talking about sand sifting gobies, which are different then the borrowing (shrimp) gobies that you have now. The sifting gobies will swim around your tank all day, sifting through the top layer of your sand bed. Here's a few from LA just to give you an idea Gobies for Sale: Goby Fish Species Including Shrimp Gobies
 
Yup, Brian has my back on this one. I also have a Queen Conch in my tank. They will burrow down a little bit, but they will roam all over as well.
 
Thanks guys. Any idea if there could be a possible turf war between my shrimp gobies and a sand sifting goby?

When I got the shrimp gobies my firefish actually hang out with them for about 3 weeks so no issue there but with the whole tank not being filled with LR I'd be concerned with territory battles.

I think I may place an order with F&S, get some of the super tongan Nass's and maybe pick up a few of the fighting conchs.
 
Blue spotted jawfish:mrgreen: Mine moves more sand than you can imagine. I do like the yellow headed sleeper goby. But they are a little big for my 55.
 

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